Secret sauce: how the right partner can unlock business growth

HSBC UK has partnered with Raconteur to deliver advertorial content and an accompanying research program to look at what’s driving UK businesses with ambitions to grow. In this article, we look at how third parties and external experts can play a key role in unlocking both business growth and personal development.

Growth is something all business leaders seek – but it is not something that needs to be achieved alone. The Growth Experience, a new research study by Raconteur and HSBC UK that surveyed more than 500 UK business decision-makers, reveals the positive impact that partnering with the right consultative partners can have in unlocking both business and professional growth.

Not everyone recognises that bringing in outside voices and eyes can help unlock that growth, however.

 “We see it day in, day out: businesses feel they have to self-solve everything and it’s a sign of weakness if you put your hand up or hire consultants or strategic partners,” says Doug Baikie, managing director and head of corporate banking for North, Scotland & Northern Ireland at HSBC UK. “Often, it is the businesses that adopt this mindset that tend to be more challenged in their growth trajectory compared with those that reach out and collaborate with others.”

Collaboration for personal growth

Effective leadership plays a critical role in fostering business growth. Yet leaders can be reticent when it comes to bringing in outside voices owing to ingrained notions that, as the people in charge, they should be able to do everything themselves. The recognition that they can’t is often transformative.

“Business leaders can be so busy doing their day job and fighting the many fires in front of them that investing in their own development as a leader is something they find really difficult,” says Baikie.

As previously outlined in this article series, there is a recognition that strategic thinking, conflict-handling and innovation are among the most important traits in leaders looking to make better decisions and unlock growth.

However, there is a notable mismatch between the skills leaders believe are most valuable and those they feel they excel at. For instance, while more than half (51%) of senior decision-makers identify strategic-thinking as a critical leadership skill, fewer than a third (29%) believe they demonstrate this skill. Similarly, being able to navigate conflict is deemed important by 48% of respondents. Yet only around one-in-10 (12%) consider themselves proficient in it.

These are alarming gaps that could negatively impact the performance and growth prospects of businesses. It’s little wonder that leaders are looking outside their organisation for ways to develop these skills.

More than half of respondents (55%) highlighted the importance of outside voices, which offer external perspectives and expertise, in helping them to develop essential soft skills.

“The biggest challenge for all businesses is the scarcity of time and, for business leaders, it’s the ability to invest in themselves and their development. An external perspective can challenge existing assumptions and inspire new ways of thinking, which can be invaluable for leaders who often struggle with time constraints,” says Baikie. “A partner that shows curiosity in what you’re doing as an individual and who asks probing questions, can make you stop and think differently.”

Leaders at high-growth firms exemplify the benefits of such partnerships, with more than half (54%) saying they spend a lot of time developing their skills with external partners.  These are leaders that recognise that personal growth is not achieved in isolation but through a network of supportive relationships. This is a lesson that leaders in lower-growth firms can learn, given only 29% say they spend significant self-development time with external parties.

Working with external partners that can challenge leaders’ thinking appears to be a more common practice in higher-revenue businesses too, with 48% of leaders at £2m+ revenue firms spending a lot of time with consultants compared with 37% of leaders at sub-£2m firms.

This suggests there are opportunities being left on the table – especially among leaders of smaller firms and businesses with lower growth aspirations – to make better use of third parties and consultants to sense-check thinking and enhance their leadership skills.

The importance of leveraging third parties in personal development should not be overlooked by business leaders who, despite being busy with day-to-day responsibilities, should carve out the time to explore development opportunities. This fact is reinforced not only by our Growth Experience research, but by wider studies too that also link the continuous learning and development of leaders to more innovative business cultures, higher employee productivity and higher profit margins.

Partnering for growth

The impact of third parties and external experts goes beyond the performance of individuals. Our findings indicate that behind access to capital (30%), access to third parties (28%) is deemed the next most important enabler of business growth – even nudging in slightly ahead of strategy and planning (27%). But why?

One reason may be that external expertise can play a crucial role in helping businesses to overcome inhibitors to growth. The Growth Experience research highlights marketplace demand, resource availability and supply chain challenges as the three greatest inhibitors to both international and domestic growth (albeit to slightly different degrees) – and these are all areas that those with more specialist knowledge can feed into.

Baikie notes that partners with specific sector expertise can provide valuable insights into market dynamics, supply chain management and regulatory environments.

“The real-time insights and data points that we can provide to our customers plays an important role in helping them make confident decisions and navigate around potential problems,” says Baikie.

“HSBC UK’s extensive knowledge of international trade, geopolitical landscapes and supply chain logistics means we can provide wide-ranging support to businesses in complex environments, providing localised insights that can help firms to be more proactive and navigate disruption more effectively.”

This can have a significant real-world impact, such as at 3TOP Aviation Services, where consultative support and industry knowledge-sharing by experts within HSBC UK has resulted in huge growth and helped the firm to jump from nothing to a £60m business, growing revenue 100% to 200% year-on-year.

“HSBC UK is a fantastic partner of ours and the proactive support we get from them makes it clear we’re all pulling in the same direction,” says Chris Emechete, owner of 3TOP Aviation Services. He adds that more businesses should be willing to learn from high-growth peers who have effectively leveraged external support.

“I believe the most successful businesses are those that are willing to seek external advice and collaborate with experts, so I try to listen to and follow the right people wherever I can find them,” says Emechete.

“Shared thinking is an amazing approach to navigate problems quickly. Having a partner who understands the specific challenges and opportunities in your sector can provide valuable reference points and content, enabling you to make more informed decisions,” adds Baikie.

“They can separate what you need to look at from what you don’t. This strategic support can help leaders navigate complex environments and seize growth opportunities more effectively.”

Increasingly, this approach is being adopted by businesses across all stages of growth, demonstrating a shift towards a more collaborative environment, especially post-pandemic. Third parties can offer a crucial source of objective viewpoints and fresh solutions for a business. Our findings make a strong case for smaller businesses and lower-growth firms to make better use of such expertise to power up the performance of their individuals and the business.

Friends and acquaintances

“It’s about having a small number of close friends rather than many acquaintances,” concludes Baikie. “Real trusted partners that understand your business and you invest in that partnership.”

This deeper level of engagement – something HSBC UK strives to offer its clients – allows businesses to leverage the full potential of their partnerships. The takeaway from our research is clear – self-sufficiency can be a limiting factor for both leaders and the businesses they run. Opening the door to external experts and objective thinking can pay dividends in the long run, exposing businesses to new ways of working and resources that can push their performance further than they could do alone.

Get it right and consultative partners can be the secret sauce to unlocking business growth,  bolstering the performance and skills of leadership teams, adding external expertise and helping to foster wider cultural change in the business.

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